I am 41 years old mother of two girls, I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
in the body of the pancreas late in 2000, I had a distal pancrectomy and
speenectomy mid January 2001 with some complications. My tumour was 4 x 2 cm
adenocarcinoma and 2 of the 10 lymph nodes removed were cancerous. I under
went 2 cycles of radiation with 5FU and LV chemotherapy in May and June 2001.
I am well now and even considering returning to a short term computer
consulting contract.
Last spring (2000) I was diagnosed with lobular breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy in May and 4 cycles of AC chemotherapy over the summer. Last September I returned to work but after only a month and a half I had to quit due to a back pain which could not be controlled by even a double dose of Celebrex, tylenol 3 every four hours and diladin (pseudomorphone). Turned out to be pancreatic cancer finally found during an abdominal ultrasound in late October 2000.
Overall, my family and I have had an incredibly bad year, my eldest
daughter has been suffering though depression and anxiety attacks at the
age of 14, my other daughter at age 7 suffered from seeing her mother
hooked up to an array of machines in ICU and my husband has been dealing
with the possibility of losing his life partner.